Pass Medicaid Expansion Now
Dear Editor,
As a person of faith, I feel called to speak to the moral urgency of closing the healthcare coverage gap. Medicare expansion: decreases premature deaths in folks ages 55-64; increases prescriptions filled for heart disease, mental health, diabetes and other conditions (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities); increases early detection of life threatening diseases (Kaiser Family Foundation); helps rural hospitals stay open; reduces uninsured folks showing up for emergency care because it’s their only option (CBPP).
Medicaid expansion also increases the number of folks getting medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders, reducing opioid deaths by 6 percent (KFF). And it reduces the disparities in health care access between different groups within our community (KFF).
Six hundred thousand North Carolinians, including 30,000 veterans, will gain these benefits with Medicaid expansion. Health for our citizens is a moral imperative.
Nine years of study and dithering is more than enough. Every day we wait more folks needlessly suffer illness, death and medical debt. Sen Berger and Speaker Moore, stop playing political games with people’s lives. Let’s pass Medicaid expansion now!
Kimberly Thornton Scholl
KTS – What are your credentials, other than you said “person of faith”
I’ve got a better idea of having equal insurance for all. Go out and buy it. Free country.
If you can afford it. Most individual policies that working people even can afford have huge deductibles and out of pocket expenses on top of the premium they are paying to be covered by insurance. A lot of these policies also have very limited providers in their networks. I have had an individual policy at one point and guess what, my dentist nor my eye doctor accepted that insurance so I had to pay for that even though I had dental and eye coverage. Before you make a statement like go out and buy it, please research what those policies will cover. Most insurance is provided through large policies purchased by big employers with little to no financial input from the covered employee. Not all companies can afford to offer those benefits and also are the same companies paying a wage that is not a livable wage. So please look into what you are espousing struggling NC citizens to deal with.
Lorrie, also a person of faith!
That is what Obama cared does but still waiting for the Republican’s repeal and replace. I think Trump said it would be ready in two weeks.
Kimberly, where is the money to pay for this? FYI, right now, if our Federal Govt took ALL of everyone’s income, there would not be enough to pay for everything thing that people want. As of now, our Federal govt spends trillions of dollars every year, that they don’t have. That is why everything costs so much more now; and it will continue to get worse.
We pay a stunning amount of taxes & fees to our governments now; and you see what we get. Don’t you think that individuals can better spend their money than some beaurocrat in Washington, Raleigh, or downtown? I pay my way, and so can you.
Eliminate the ability for the wealthy and corporations to avoid paying their fare share of taxes. Problem solved.
Since Kimberly is so passionate about this, I guess she is going to voluntarily foot the bill for all this additional spending. She forgot to mention that the primary reason for Medicare is to buy votes for democrats.
Yeah. We should do away with Medicare and Social Security. Every Republican should commit to termination in next congressional term.
Take that money saved and go after rich tax cheats. That will help reduce the deficit.
“Medicare expansion: decreases premature deaths in folks ages 55-64”
I don’t believe that. It is healthier to stay away from the medical industrial complex, which has abundantly manifested its corruptness during the Plandemic.
Kimberly, Medicare is not up for expansion. If that is done we’ll then basically have the nirvana of universal health insurance the progressive democrats envision which will join us with the other countries that have horrible health care systems that caused thousands to come to the US for quality health care for years.
Medicaid expansion has confused and diluted health care in the states that implemented it. Wait times for health care have lengthened as specialists and general practitioners have been overwhelmed with patients as doctors leave their practices to offer pay-by-cash-only services, retire, and new ones fail to enter the field. More patients are treated at the ER and emergency clinics because they don’t want to wait months for an appointment to see someone so hospitals are deluged by people who don’t have life threatening events. And most complicated of all in places where expansion has taken place when you have Medicaid coverage in one part of a state but move to another part of the state you may not be covered by the same Medicaid insurer and must apply again in different areas of a state are covered by different insurers, and often there are very limited options available. You often are limited in where you can move especially if you have complicated medical issues or require longterm nursing care or in-home care.
Medicaid expansion is not the answer to covering people who don’t currently have health care and definitely not the answer for Veterans who aren’t covered. There are other ways to offer them coverage which the Affordable Care Act attempted to do but people didn’t understand it wasn’t FREE so fail to sign up. The state can’t offer FREE insurance for the 630,000 and growing people you mention plus those already getting services through Medicaid and those who will apply in the future based on the current requirements due to illness, dementia, chronic and disabling medical needs.
The point of Medicaid was to help people who had used ALL THEIR ASSETS to pay for their health care and had nothing left before losing their home and food but still had serious medical needs. Medicaid wasn’t meant to pay for basic medical needs for everyone who didn’t have a job, whose job didn’t cover medical benefits, who chose to not pay medical premiums, or who chose not to save or budget for medical premiums or costs (So you understand when my husband retired from Guilford County Emergency Services his retirement pay was $683/month and our out of pocket premium through the County was $1007/month plus my Medicare disability premium of $107/month which we paid for several years by his working another full-time job. Now at the age of 70, he still works that full-time job because even though the premium has been reduced, we pay a total of $560/month which is almost all of his retirement pay from the County.)
Having medical insurance is a privilege, not a right.
Well stated. And here’s another: Housing is a privilege, not a right.
What a dreadful situation, Deborah. I wish you the best, and I am glad that I never personally placed any trust in government.
Government is a cancer.
Freedom is the answer.
There is no “moral urgency”, or morality at all, in forcing someone else to pay for your needs.
Austin would stand by and watch a child die while telling them to lift themselves by their bootstraps. How republican of him.
Chris I would not pee on you if you were on fire.
Yes I would. My action would be voluntary, not coerced – right?
Are you able to discern the difference?
Basically it comes down to the difference between a free country and a totalitarian one. I’m not surprised you can’t see it. All Leftists are totalitarians.